Thursday 11 August 2011 14.52 EDT
First published on Thursday 11 August 2011 14.52 EDT

The latest financial meltdown is taking no prisoners, singeing the fortunes of some of the biggest players on Wall Street – even if they are remain richer than some small countries.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs's chairman and the banker who once joked he was "doing God's work", appears to be suffering some divine retribution: since the start of the month Goldman's share price has fallen from over $134 to just above $112. At the end of January, Blankfein owned 1,794,538 Goldman shares, putting his paper loss at $39.47m (£24.3m).

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's boss and the man who told the world to lay off bankers after the financial crisis, has also lost a fortune. JP's shares stood at $40.45 and now sell for less than $35, knocking $14m-plus off the 2,714,336 he owned in January.

And it's not just the bankers who have been burned. John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who made a killing as the sub-prime home loan market collapsed, has not navigated this storm quite so successfully.

The value of his hedge fund's holdings have fallen by more than $1.5bn this month, and his largest fund has tumbled 31% so far this year, investors have told the Wall Street Journal. Paulson has, however, also made a big bet on gold, the price of which has soared to record levels as investors have fled the stock market.

But never fear, there are money men who are making a fortune as the markets burn. Ray Dalio, who runs Bridgewater Associates, the world's biggest hedge fund, has successfully plotted a course through the global storm.

Dalio, a "macro-investor" who bets on economic trends, has managed to reap gains of more than $3.5bn in his main hedge fund just in the past week, investors say. The $71bn fund is reportedly up more than 20% this year.